Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Grant McDougall,
if it lasts
She has a shot I reckon but, more or less, it comes down to what’s happening that we’re not seeing. Industry stuff. Politics. Who benefits. That sort of thing.
ETA: and how she deals with all the above both on an emotional and a business level. It’s monumentally tough.
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Russell Brown,
And management who aren’t also her record company.
Yup. These fabulous 360 Deals are not all that...
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Russell Brown,
You’re suggesting what, that she and her record company should have done something to prevent that happening?
No of course not, because that window would never come again.
That said, this will mess with her hugely and it won't be an easy ride. As odious as some things said about her in NZ might be, they're sweet nothings compared to what she might and probably will get elsewhere. And the pressure is beyond overpowering.
I was going to say I can't imagine what she's going through right now, but I actually can, from experience. The thing she really needs most right now is ironclad worldwise management acting as a buffer and a shield. Because they are the only friends you have, despite the smiling record label folks who are championing you now, and the media who want to tag their byline to you on the way up.
Everybody – and that's a very inclusive everybody – in the offshore industry wants their bit and will be relentless in trying to extract it.
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Kyle Matthews,
What’s the record number of album sales for a New Zealand artist?
depends if you want to call Crowded House an NZ act, but the OMC album has done around 2m to date (with a remastered version out next year).
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to BenWilson,
The events also showed that those governments were toppled and their leadership killed. Degrading of their military capability is not worth nothing, it led to total defeat for the parties concerned .. Saddam survived shock and awe, by hiding in a hole in the ground
No, that was the land assault that did that. Saddam survived the cruise attacks in 2003 reasonably intact. Same with Libya. Cruise missiles are an incredibly inaccurate blunt attack instrument which make a lot of noise, blow some random things up and often miss their targets (the US DOD claim of 85% success is treated with some skepticism. That seems to be the number that actually launched) They also have less explosive force than a single 1000lb bomb. But they look neat taking off.
The US can't use every ship they have because they are required globally. However, assuming that they can, the US carrier fleet is currently 11. They have an average of 40 aircraft with strike capacity on each one (20 of those have air to air capacity). That gives them rough parity with the Syrians. However, the US can't deploy 11 carriers. The maximum is 5 (5 are in the Pacific and 1 is rotated to shore and would take an age to get underway). That means the Syrians have a 2 to 1 advantage. Add to that the fact that Syrian planes don't have to fly a distance, have a much longer loiter time, and have the tactical advantage of home terrain and the story changes quite a bit.
The US Navy doesn't have massive airpower reserves simply because it's too expensive. There is a reserve wing in California which could be brought into play if there was deckspace, but now we are starting to talk casualties. The only way space for wing could be created was if a lot of US aircraft had gone down.
Which ally within strike distance is going to allow US aircraft to use bases? Turkey? Israel? Saudi Arabia? All these are unlikely for glaring political reasons. Qatar is too far as is Baharain. That's about it.
The reason the Joint Chiefs and the UK MOD (before the vote) were so anti the strike option wasn't because they were instant peaceniks, it was because tactically it was really bloody hard verging on impossible. I'd be surprised if Obama hasn't had this driven home rather forcefully in recent weeks.
Happily, with Kerry's blunder and Russia's swoop on that blunder we may never find out.
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Hard News: This time it's Syria, in reply to BenWilson,
g. But I’m just trying to be realistic about how fighting the US with a conventional military is likely to play out, given the events of the last 20 years.
The events of the last few years have more or less shown that not much has changed from WW2. Iraq and Libya proved that you can throw all the ALCM and other distantly launched weaponry at a target but all you'll do is degrade. Saddam survived the shock and awe and Gaddafi did too. The threat to Assad would be ground troops taking advantage of an airborne attack by missiles.
Even Afghanistan in 2003 relied on Northern Alliance troops after perhaps the most massive rolling bombardment in history.
whilst the Americans would simply be bringing in more force from practically every direction.
From where? They have no regional land bases. They're carrier dependent.
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@Danielle I'm guessing you've heard this. It's really kinda great.
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Alan Perrott,
I’m playing records at Golden Dawn tonight – I hear it might get a breezy.
Bit of a flight for me, I'm back in the Royal Swamp at the moment, but I've just discovered that my favourite local has just opened a second hand vinyl store on the top floor so I'm a happy chap.
I wish I had the time to RG at the moment, everyone is finding gold there.
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Hard News: Game Lorde, in reply to Danielle,
found these 7s at lunchtime
the 7 inch 45s or the vids? If the former, where do you shop at lunchtime as I want to get there by 11.30.
Do you have this? I am a little bit obsessed with it.
Don't do this to me Danielle.
I had a few weeks of Saturday morning shows on bFM recently and really wanted to play a bit of girl-group floss but was nervous. I asked Manu (Station Manager) how far I could go. His answer: You need to have a reason to play something on B. However that reason can be "I like it".
So I played:
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Kerry shocked to be taken seriously
Secretary of State John Kerry said today that he was “shocked and flabbergasted” that the Russians heeded his suggestion about Syria’s chemical weapons, telling reporters, “After four decades in public life, this is the first time someone has taken me seriously.”